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Music > Albums > Muse - Hullabaloo (2002) Retail CD
added on April 25, 2007, at 17:43 by allcdcovers

Bombastic, guitar-flagellating pop opera, of course, but delightfully absurd all the same, Hullabaloo finds prog-inclined three-piece Muse blowing a few circuits in front of the frothing masses at Le Zenith in Paris late in 2001. Never mind what the pigeonholers say about Thom Yorke and Freddie Mercury (Matt Bellamy's most name-checked influences), given Muse's undoubted love of the great romantic composers, unfashionably deep-seated musical virtuosity and a singer who can ascend into the realms of shrieking operatic hysteria--on this scabrously unhinged version of "Micro Cuts", Matt Bellamy really does sound like Sparks' Russel Mael with his gonads wired up to the national grid--Muse are a dream amalgamation of Sparks, Motorhead's ear-boxing belligerence and Emerson Lake And Palmer's classical-is-cool ethos. And--yes, alright then--Radiohead. Or Rush for punks. Although the non-committed need not trouble themselves (like most live records--and this is one of the better ones--it's of marginal interest to all but the hardcore fanbase), waverers may be ensnared by a second disc consisting of b-sides recorded between March 1999 and October 2001. Overall, though, one hopes that someday Muse may do a Pink Floyd at Pompeii by unleashing their psychotic Maria Callas-isms in front on an invite-only indie crowd at La Scala in Milan. Now, that would be some live album. Meanwhile, Hullabaloo, or its attendant release--the more expansive double DVD package of the same name--is a powerfully electric interlude before that difficult third album. --Kevin Maidment

back 1032 x 800 px

cd 798 x 800 px

cd_2 806 x 800 px

front 881 x 800 px

inlay 896 x 800 px

inside 800 x 800 px